Brad Keselowski has fielded trucks in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series since 2008.

Team owner Brad Keselowski, a Rochester Hills native, announced on Thursday that he was shuttering his team after the Nov. 17 season-ending race at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

The 2012 NASCAR Cup Series champion made it clear Friday afternoon that he probably would have shut down his Camping World Truck Series team even if it had won more races, won a championship or two and turned a profit from time to time.

The news comes after Team Penske, owned by Roger Penske, announced in late July that Keselowski had signed a multiyear contract extension to stay on as a driver for the motorsports team.

Brad Keselowski Racing began fielding Chevrolet Silverados in NASCAR's third-tier series in 2008. In its 287 races through Wednesday night — using Chevys, Dodges and Fords — its 17 drivers have a combined 15 poles, nine victories, 97 top-five finishes and 160 top-10 finishes. BKR finished second in 2014 owner points with Ryan Blaney and second again in 2015, this time with Tyler Reddick. The organization has had five other top-10 points seasons and is 10th-ranked after 14 of this year's 23 races.

Despite what many owners might have considered a successful operation, Keselowski is getting out of truck racing. He insists that finances aren't the sole reason, only a part of why he's doing this while looking well ahead into the rest of his life.

"I don't know. Probably not," he said when asked if he'd be getting out if the BKR had been more profitable. (Later, he backtracked and said the exit strategy would have remained the same, win or lose). "There were a lot of decisions that went into it. There wasn't really one reason, but certainly, at some point, every business needs to have some profitability. I never went into it expecting to make money, so I can't blame that. Everybody is losing a little money, (so) that was one of the factors. I wouldn't say it was the only one."

The announcement caught many off guard, but Keselowski said the decision-making process was long and thorough. "There were a few months of planning and thinking and making sure everything was right, that the I's were dotted and the T's were crossed," he said. "It wasn't an overnight thing. Being a business owner is more about the people than anything else. You care about them and they give you their all, and you want to give them your all. In some ways, you feel like you're letting them down when you're not able to keep it going. That's never any fun."

Keselowski is planning for his post-driver days. He hopes to sell his racing trucks and inventory of engines and spare parts, but he will keep his shop equipment and team headquarters. "The biggest thing is that I want to be positioned to have the best opportunities when I get done being a driver," he said. "One of those opportunities is to be a team owner. For that to have any chance of being successful, it's critical to have my ducks in a row specific to having other income-generating businesses. This is the only way I could get the opportunity to do that, so I feel it's the right decision.

"If you look at the owners at this level, they have a sustainable, profitable business outside of motorsports. That's going to remain the key for any owner to have success because I can only be a driver for so long. When that time comes up, my business would have to shut down because I don't have a profit center."

The obvious question was: What type of "sustainable, profitable business outside of motorsports" does Keselowski have in mind? "We're not ready to announce anything, but I know where I want to go, and we're in the middle of putting all that together," he said. "I'm committed to the facility and the community … committed to have an operational and functioning business in that area...

"I'm trying to be positioned to have as many opportunities as possible to control what that (future) might be. This (closing his team) is a necessary step, business-wise, to have those opportunities."